Lenovo IdeaPad U350

Key Specs

Processor: 1.3GHz Intel Pentium SU2700
Memory: 3GB RAM
Storage: 320GB hard drive
Optical Drive: None
Screen: 13.3 inches (1,366x768)
Graphics: Integrated Intel GMA X4500
Weight: 2.8 pounds
Dimensions (HWD): : 0.78 x 12.9 x 8.8 inches
Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium

Review

Reviewed by: Jamie Bsales Review Date: July 2009

Depending on how you look at it, the 13.3-inch Lenovo IdeaPad U350 is either a step up from a netbook or a step down from an ultraportable. Like a netbook, this 2.8-pound machine is easy to carry, but it’s faster and more comfortable to use than any netbook we’ve seen to date; of course, the $749 price also makes it more expensive than a netbook. Coming at it from the other direction, the U350 is much less expensive than just about any 13.3-inch ultraportable or thin-and-light, but it delivers about half the performance and battery life. The bottom line: If you want an affordable, easy-to-carry laptop without the screen and keyboard trade-offs of a netbook—and can live with merely adequate performance—the U350 is worth a look. Picking up the IdeaPad U350, it’s like déjà vu all over again: It is so similar in design to the MSI X340, we can’t help but think there’s some platform sharing going on here. That’s not a bad thing, though, as we appreciate the ultra-slim profile (only about three-quarters of an inch at its thickest) and incredibly light weight (2.8 pounds). The physical design is similar to the groundbreaking MacBook Air, although the IdeaPad U350 (and the MSI X340 for that matter) can’t match the Apple’s modern aesthetic or sleek aluminum. Still, the IdeaPad U350’s black plastic lid has a subtle squares-in-squares texture (set on the diagonal) that looks and feels good, while also hiding fingerprints. Under the lid, a silver plastic surround (made to at least mimic brushed aluminum) sets off a basic black keyboard. The full-size keys have a comfortable amount of up-down travel, though we sensed a small but noticeable amount of flex when typing on the center keys. We would also prefer to see dedicated multimedia-control keys, since the keyboard surround has plenty of spare room. The touch pad is large (3.25 inches by 2 inches) by ultraportable standards, and the pad’s pebbled surface makes mousing comfortable. More importantly, it is a new-generation pad that supports two-finger gestures for zooming, rotating images, and more. In addition to the next-gen touch pad, Lenovo has included some welcome features given the price. The spacious 320GB hard drive has an active protection system, which parks the drive heads when the machine is jostled or dropped to prevent possible data loss. An ambient light sensor can adjust the screen’s brightness automatically as lighting changes, and there’s even an HDMI port for connecting to an external display. You also get a VGA port, Ethernet jack, three USB ports, Bluetooth, and headphone and mic jacks. Lenovo has included an SD/MMC memory card reader but couldn’t find space (or budget) for an ExpressCard or PC Card expansion slot. And as with other sub–3-pound notebooks (with the notable exception of the $2,999 Toshiba Portégé R600), you’ll need to provide your own external optical drive. The U350’s 13.3-inch glossy widescreen is very bright, and the LED backlighting makes colors in Windows programs and photo images pop. The panel also did well with video, exhibiting natural, well-saturated colors and little motion blur. The screen’s 1,366x768 resolution makes for sharp, legible text. We were also impressed with the U350’s stereo speakers. At first, we thought music sounded a bit tinny but still acceptable for a machine this thin. But the included Dolby Sound Room utility let us boost the bass and expand the sound stage, delivering downright decent audio quality for the class and among the best we’ve heard from a 13.3-inch platform. The 1.3-megapixel Webcam delivered pleasing images under bright light, with natural colors, good detail, and just the typical amount of motion blur. In a dim room, however, the camera struggled; you’ll need to have at least light from a table lamp to get a usable image. Lenovo preloads its EasyCapture utility for use with the camera. The icon-driven user interface makes capturing stills and recording video or audio easy. You can add frames or animated cartoon characters to your captures, or apply one of nine special effects such as black-and-white, negative image, and pixilated. The U350 employs an Intel Pentium SU2700 processor working with 3GB of RAM (or just 2GB in the $699 configuration). The 1.3GHz single-core processor is an order of magnitude faster than the Intel Atom CPUs found in most netbooks but is woefully underpowered compared with the Core 2 Duo chips that power most ultraportables and even $750 budget laptops these days. The U350 scored just 1,512 on Futuremark’s PCMark Vantage benchmark, which measures overall system performace. That number is about half the average score of ultraportables we’ve tested to date—though it should be noted that the average price of those machines was north of $2,000. A closer comparison is to the HP Pavilion dv2 and the aforementioned MSI X340, which cost the same and delivered marginally better Vantage scores of 1,566 and 1,628. Similarly, the U350’s score of 1,356 on Cinebench 10 was close enough to the HP (1,406) and MSI (1,514) competitors to be a nonissue in real-world use, but that score is half of what we saw from ultraportables on the whole. On the other hand, the U350 score was about double what we see from the typical netbook. For multimedia work, the U350 is overmatched when it comes to demanding video-plus-audio encoding. It needing nearly 22 minutes to complete our Windows Media Encoder 9 trial—about 5 minutes less than an average netbook, but twice as long as an average ultraportable (the HP dv2 took about 23 minutes, the MSI X340 about 19 minutes). The U350 fared better with straight audio encoding, requiring 9:44 for our iTunes trial; again, that’s in between the averages of a netbook (27:16) and an expensive ultraportable (5:45) and a bit slower than the HP (8:52) and MSI (8:51) competitors. As for 3D graphics, the integrated Intel GMA X4500 graphics are fine for Windows Vista’s Aero effects and some slow-action 3D games, but its score of 670 on 3DMark06 shows it—like most ultraportables, which average 888 on this test—is not suitable for gaming. The U350’s slender 4-cell battery keeps weight down, but the machine’s runtime of 2 hours 26 minutes on our streaming-video test is well short of the 4-hour average time posted by netbooks. Other software is fairly scant. You get Windows Vista Home Premium as the OS, plus Lenovo VeriFace for using facial recognition to log in and Lenovo Idea Central, which combines a news reader and system tools with a heavy dose of ads for third-party services. You also get a 60-day trial to Microsoft Office 2007, 60 days of Norton Internet Security protection, and a 30-day trial for the excellent Carbonite automatic online backup service. Lenovo backs the machine with a one-year warranty with 24/7 tech support. If you’re a glass-half-empty type of person, you’ll probably focus on the U350’s low performance and dismiss it. That would be a shame, since you’d be missing out on a smartly designed, super-slim, feather-light machine with a gorgeous screen and some decent features for $750. If a netbook is too much of a toy but $2,000 is too much of a stretch, the IdeaPad U350 may be just right. Price (at time of review): $749 (direct)

Hands-On with the Lenovo IdeaPad S12

Source: http://blog.laptopmag.com/hands-on-with-the-lenovo-ideapad-s12



If our hands-on with the Lenovo’s IdeaPad S12 told us anything it is that 12 inches is the new 10 inches. Lenovo’s newest IdeaPad may sport some netbook parts, but its larger screen and chassis makes it more like an ultraportable notebook than anything else. Check out our impressions, gallery and video of the Lenovo IdeaPad S12 below.

The IdeaPad S12 wears the same improved design as Lenovo’s IdeaPad S10-2. The glossy black lid (also available in white) has an imprinted pattern that looks similar to Target’s Bulls eye. The overall build of the notebook is solid and at 1.4-inches thick, we were reminded of Lenovo’s business aimed X200 and its thin and compact stature.

Surrounding the S12 are more ports than your typical netbook. It has 3 USB, an Express Card 34 slot , 4-in-1 card reader, VGA, mic and headphone. (The Ion version of the S12 will have an HDMI port.)

Under the lid is a 12.1-inch glossy display which, with its 1280×800 resolution, makes it much easier on the eyes than a 10-inch netbook. And thanks to the extra screen real estate, the S12 has a full-size keyboard; the matte black keys were comfortable and similar to those on the other IdeaPads. Underneath the keyboard is large trackpad with a single mouse button.




The unit we had some hands-on time with packed a Via Nano processor which will not be available in the U.S. However, Lenovo will offer the S12 in the U.S. with an Intel Atom processor and Intel Atom joined with Nvidia’s GeForce 9400M graphics (known as Ion). All SKUs will run Windows XP and pack a 160GB hard drive and 1GB of RAM.

With all models of the S12 being priced below $500 (the Atom will be $449), the S12 has the potential to seriously shake up the market. Beyond its thin and attractive design, the S12’s larger screen and more powerful performance make it more than a companion netbook.

Lenovo Ideapad S10-2 gets unboxed

Lenovo’s 10-inch Ideapad S10-2 is a refresh of the current Ideapad S10. It improves the S10 in a number of subtle areas including a bigger keyboard and touchpad, a new textured lid design as well as making the S10-2 both thinner and lighter. It also has optional 3G. The new model does lack an Expresscard slot which is disappointing.

The first unboxing pictures have been spotted over at the Netbook Philippines Forums. I really like the fancy new lid design that differentiates itself from the swathe of netbooks out there. The 6-cell battery does stick out unattractively, however Lenovo looks like they’ve made upgradeability a cinch.

There are two separate panel covers one of the RAM and one for the HDD/WI-FI and 3G modules. An empty PCI-E slot can be used to install a Mini PCI-E 3G modem, if you wish. The screen is glossy unfortunately, but apart from that it looks pretty good.

Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2 with OS X – Video

Wondering whether OS X runs on the Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2? The quick version is yes, yes it does. The longer version, is that it takes a bit of work to get it up and running and the camera and audio may not work properly out of the box. There are also problems with the sleep function.

Netbook Philippines member Shinrai also reports that updating to OS X 10.5.5 or a more recent build causes his computer to crash, so he’s sticking with OS X 10.5.4 for now.

You can see a few videos of the netbook in action after the break.

Quick Look: Lenovo Ideapad S10-2

Guess what the Lenovo fairy just brought us! This is the new Lenovo S10-2, a $399 ultralight with a 10-inch screen, Atom processor, and six-cell battery. It weighs 2.2 pounds and looks pretty sassy.

The S10-2 has three USB port, VGA-out, and bog standard audio-in and -out. Most interesting is the delicate polka dot styling on the laptop’s cover, perfect for nights on the beach or a weekend at the glue refinery.

We’ll do a little testing of this laptop this week - look for our bonanza netbook/ultralight blow-out shortly - and get back to you on performance and fun-itude.

Lenovo Ideapad S12 ION to appear in Europe after all?

We had previously reported that Lenovo’s Ideapad S12 will not see the ION version coming to Europe. However, it looks like Lenovo may have reversed that decision. Notebook Italia has had confirmation from Lenovo Italy that both the Atom and ION versions will be available at launch next month. The Atom version will start at €379, as we previously reported, but there is no price for the ION version for now. Let’s hope this arrives in the UK too, as it’s one of the models I’m most excited about.

In related news, for those wondering how ION performs on a Linux system, click over to phoronix who have a detailed performance test on an ION-powered ZaReason nettop.

In our last bit of ION news, JKKMobile got a chance to get hands-on with some ION-powered netbooks at Computex last week. He attempted to put Call of Duty IV through its paces, although he is not really a gamer so couldn’t give us an idea of resolution, settings, frame rate etc. However, from looking at the video you can tell it plays quite smoothly at what look like quite low settings.

First look: the Ion-powered Lenovo Ideapad S12

Lenovo’s Ideapad S12 is one of the first netbooks we’ve seen to use Nvidia’s Ion platform, which can allegedly “turn a netbook into a notebook” thanks to its combination of Intel Atom CPU and Nvidia GeForce 9400M GPU.

It’s a new part that’s only been used by Acer up until now, in its netbooks and A-Listed Aspire Revo R3600.

That ambitious claim comes courtesy of Matt Wuebbling, a senior manager in Nvidia’s notebook division, who’ll understandably talk up the chances of his own product in the face of endless scepticism. However, having been hands-on with Lenovo’s latest offering and seeing the Ion in action, we’ve seen plenty of evidence to support his claims.

Our own testing on the Acer Aspire Revo has shown that Blu-ray playback can be handled with barely a whimper from the Ion, as most of the work is shifted onto the GPU - a trick that was repeated by the new S12 - and accomplished far easier than the old Intel integrated parts, which delivered results that were almost always too juddery to be watchable.

Video encoding had been added to the S12’s box of tricks: the ION-powered machine encoded a 1080p movie trailer for smartphone playback in approximately four minutes, with an Atom-powered equivalent struggling through the same task in almost 15 minutes.

It’s clear that the Ideapad will have more power than most of its Atom-equipped netbook rivals, then, and we’re pleased to report that the rest of the package looks just as solid.

Intel’s Atom N270 processor partners with the GeForce 9400M graphics chip and, in a break away from most of its netbook rivals, 2GB of RAM is included rather than one, which should make the operating system that little bit more responsive.

There’s also HSDPA and a 320GB hard disk, so connectivity and storage looks to be about as good as we’ve seen from any netbook, and the native resolution of 1,280 x 800 is larger than most netbooks on the market today.

The chassis felt rock-solid, too, with the wrist-rest showing no flex at all and the back of the screen barely twisting as we tugged at its glossy rear. The keyboard felt just as comfortable as those included with Samsung’s A-Listed NC10 and NC20, and was sat above a responsive trackpad with an excellent pair of buttons.

In fact, Wuebbling’s prediction seems to be coming true: the netbook does seem to be turning into a notebook: this one, for instance, sports Nvidia’s more powerful components, plenty of storage and RAM, a notebook-sized screen resolution and build quality that shames many laptops that cost twice as much.

If Lenovo can provide this specification at a reasonable price – say, near the £326 you’d be paying for a Samsung NC20 – then the Ideapad S12 could be a contender. We’ll let you know when the S12 arrives at the PC Pro Labs and it gets the full review treatment.

Lenovo IdeaPad S12 with VIA Nano available for pre-order

Lenovo has started taking orders for the IdeaPad 12. This laptop has a 12.1 inch, 1280 x 800 pixel display, but the rest of the specs are nearly identical to the cheaper, smaller IdeaPad S10… for now at least.

Eventually Lenovo is expected to make a version of the S12 available with NVIDIA ION graphics. But right now, the computer is available with a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU, Integrated GMA 950 graphics, 1GB of RAM, a 160Gb hard drive, 6 cell battery, 802.11b/g WiFi, and Windows XP Home. The web site says the laptop will begin shipping in more than 4 weeks.

Interestingly, the base price is $499. We’d initially heard that the IdeaPad S12 would sell for $499 with NVIDIA ION, and that the version with Intel’s integrated graphics would sell for $50 less.